Did you think that this was just humor and adventure? Forget it, I am writing the brutality of reality into this story. Hero doesn't always come out on top, and everything could get fucked up like Heaven's Feel Route of Fate/Stay Night... Which still had a kinda good ending by the way(True Route). This isn't M rated because I'm not gonna put sex scenes or graphic detail of gore. The plot and content itself could be pretty merciless.

This is a FATE/STAY NIGHT crossover, people. A happy ending is not really required for this fic to become a good one... With 40 bad endings that are possible throughout the story... Although I do like happy endings.

Whatever, I'll just write this as I go along.

I hope I get a good response to this chapter. I tried to portray the concept of Shirou and several aspects of Campione universe as logically as I could, and tried to get every character fulfill their role correctly, but I'm not sure if I succeeded.

Now the huge chunk of the beginning is basically explaining the system of the world in which Shirou found himself in. That's right! World building! The world of Campione has no complex mechanics like Nasuverse, so I added some quality to it that would probably be important in the future. The information may interest you… Or not. I don't care, but please inform me if the explanation that I have made for this world of Campione is bad. I tried my best.

Disclaimer: Wow, really? Come on, dudes. I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Campione! I don't get any monetary reward by writing these works, and this is purely for enjoyment.

Beta: Mars

An excerpt from Merlin, found and stolen from within the lowest level of the secret vault of Witenagemot by Witenagemot.

As I lived through this unexplained world of magic that I found myself in, I questioned myself, "Where do Heretic Gods come from?" and "Where do Devil Kings come from?

These questions may be answered in one sentences, such as "They manifest from their myths and legends." Or, "They manage to kill a Heretic God, taking over their divine Authority, and power of the legend to alleviate themselves to a status similar to a god."

But no.

What I have always wanted to know was the core, the origin of their existence, the source in which created their being, their status of becoming a god through legends and myths.

Let me elaborate.

First, let us consider the term Heretic God. Heretic Gods are heroes, gods, and monsters that step out of their legends to manifest in the mortal world, endangering people.

They were born from myths and legends. Their essence, their supernatural core, their source of power and Authority is based on their myths and legends. However, even as they were immortalized by their legends, they rebel against their legends and myths when their own legends become a burden.

For what reasons do their myths and legends become a burden to them? Wasn't their being created by legends and myths? Then, isn't it quite contradictory that their own essence becomes a burden to their being, making them rebel against it, casting them out into the mortal world where they cause havoc upon our world?

Even before addressing such question, if the gods, heroes, and monsters' legends immortalized them and made them "God," what kind of force and system enforce their ascension to "Godhood?" What kind of being or system is capable of creating being known as "Gods" through the usage of legends and myths? Who has created the Domain of Immortality in which all "Gods" reside until they rebel against their myth and legends to turn into a Heretic Gods?

Throughout all my life, I have struggled to find the answer to my questions, forever searching through clues, mysteries, myths, legends, and lores which may explain my conundrum.

And I have found my answer.

Or a part of it, for I, Merlin, the Devil King and the founder of Witenagemot, write this down with the last of my strength within this hall of tomes and artifacts of Witenagemot. A secret vault within our treasury that I have created with a beacon for teleportation that reacts when I am in mortal danger.

Alas, even with this beacon, which should have transported me to safety even before a Heretic God could damage me with a lethal blow, failed. The being, which I cannot describe or name, for my mortal mind could not comprehend what the being was before it tried to destroy me, was probably the source of the system in this world, which drives the creation of "Gods."

At least, my inhuman endurance as a Devil King allows me to write the knowledge I have gained before I succumb to my death, for I will die. The being's blow did not harm my body, but it has ripped apart a part of my soul, and the damage is slowly spreading. Before I become an empty shell, I must write down whatever knowledge I have found for the future generation.

The gods, heroes, and monsters that the legends and myths have first forcefully made to ascend into the Domain of Immortality were all once just relatively normal humans and monsters. Some of them may have wielded and controlled some kind of supernatural force (not modern magic, as modern magic is just a use of mana and a series of incantation to help shape the said mana based on the stories and myths of legend to give them specific function) to help them defeat their foes, but at their birth, they were humans and normal monsters.

However, they accomplished something within their lives which immortalized their actions amongst men through tales and myths, spreading their names across the land.

And such factor elevated their normal spirit after their death to be placed in the Domain of Immortality as the first "Gods," with their legends and myths empowering them and forcing them to stay in the Domain of Immortality instead of going back to whatever place spirits went back to after their mortal lives ended.

As you know, legends spread, deviate, and change. Different cultures make a legendary figure of another culture change in their own myth to fit the taste of their own culture. Such examples include the gods of Greece and Rome, where the gods were interpreted to be more war-like for the Romans while the Greeks interpreted their gods to be more frivolous and emotional.

As such, the normal souls of the dead that was sent to the Domain of Immortality became warped with the system adding more and more varying aspects to their personality and nature through different tales, legends, and myths. For example, as the god of death, Hades can find its root within the Egyptian gods of death, Anubis and Osiris, the soul that held the first legend in the past the aspect of death became the vessel in which holds the legends of all demons, gods, and heroes that originated from his legend.

However, bear in mind that although the spirits became the vessel for such legends, even they cannot, no, will not follow their legend without complaint, for they were once beings that held personalities that differed from the personality and the traits depicted within their legends.

They were once alive, and different from what the legends describe them as.

And so they rebel against their legends, struggling to fight against the myth that conflicts against their nature.

Then, what happens to the legend that has been rejected from the vessel that holds them?

It is spilled into the mortal world along with the soul of the vessel that rebelled against its legend, as the soul rejected its submission to the system which empowers and enforces it within the Domain of Immortality, escaping out of the system for a while until their eventual demise in the mortal world.

No matter how the legend is different from the spirit of the vessel, it has still originated from the first legend of the vessel's soul. Therefore, the soul of the vessel, which has no physical form, wraps the legend which it has rejected in the Domain of Immortality like a cocoon, a body, representing the legend which it had specifically rejected within the Domain of Immortality when it arrives in the mortal world, ironically primarily exhibiting the traits of the legend which it rejected, while secondarily having the Authority/quality of the other legends that the spirit is the origin of.

And as such, the vessel spirits assume the form of the legends they reject within the Domain of Immortality, presenting itself upon the mortal world in different forms each time they reject a legend for the aspects which does not fit their original personality as mortals.

Such is the origin of the Heretic Gods. Whether they are beings that should be pitied for their enslavement by the system or revered for their actions which labeled their actions as the first legend which originated the later legends upon this world, I do not know.

Now, onto the creation of Devil Kings. Although I don't remember meeting her, supposedly Pandora, the demigod who was tricked into releasing all the Evils of the world, is the creator of the curse which let mortals such as myself become Devil Kings.

Who IS she?

Is she a Heretic God?

(It is cut off at this point)

May 24th, 2010 Skopje, Macedonia. Saints Cyril and Methodius, Salvonic Enlighteners' Day: A national holiday. 7:00 p.m.

When the explosion occurred, the resulting blast had thrown the large 30 meter tall werewolf-like form of Voban onto the side of the ritual dome, making his large form sink into the stone wall of the ritual dome only about five feet beside where I was.

The barrier around me had barely protected me from the shockwave, rattling dangerously and dissipating as the explosion had ended.

A thick cloud of dust blocked the view in front of me, making me unable to see five feet in front of me.

For a few moments, I was unable to comprehend what had happened, Excalibur Galantine stuck on the ground beside me, my two hands holding Caladborg and the black bow of Archer, the ringing around me and the black spot caused by the bright light had robbed me of most of my senses.

Tears in my eyes, I was barely able to see the bodies of the people that I was trying to save standing in front of me as though there was no explosion at all.

A thud.

Several thuds.

I cleared away the black spots on my vision, and even with the thick cloud of dust, I was able to see the bodies that were standing like statues falling onto the ground, collapsing like a marionette that had its strings cut.

"..." I raised my body up, stepping toward the bodies in front of me, the injury on my legs due to Voban's blow on my body strangely numb.

"No..." I murmured out as I staggered toward the closest body in front of me, kneeling beside a boy no older than ten years old. He was slightly pudgy in frame, with blond hair and normal cloth suited for a civilian.

I turned the body of the boy over.

The boy was alive.

Physically, that is.

The boy's glassy blue eyes stared back at me, his expression blank, with wide eyes and slightly opened mouth and saliva that began to roll down from his mouth that looked painfully slow in my perception.

I tapped the boy's face of the boy in my hand, trying to have a slightest bit of human response from him.

...Nothing...

No response.

No shifting of eyes, no catching of breath, not even a basic response of an animal that would subconsciously surface when a person's mind is destroyed.

Nothing.

My eyes blank, I looked around the boy, seeing every single body around me collapsed onto dirt.

[Static]

The black sun in the sky, flames licking my body as I stumbled by, cries of help from the people around me ignored as I walked by.

[Static]

"Damn." I muttered out as I crawled toward the woman near me, a brown haired woman that had tied her hair into a ponytail, with a large bulge on her stomach, telling me that she was pregnant and turned her over. Her blank black eyes stared back at me.

[Static]

The cries of people, telling me to join them in the fire. The cries of people, calling out to me to save them from the fire. The cries of people, pleading me to save their precious ones from the fire.

[Static]

All around me, the stench of urination and defecation clogged the air, making it harder to breath as the soulless people lay on the ground.

[Static]

The people that were the closest to the source of the Noble Phantasm, Blood Fort Andromeda lay on the ground, gasping like a fish out of water and their skin melting from their body.

[Static]

I slowly stood up, unable to do anything else as I tried to understand the situation and find a purpose in this room of death and sorrow, my mind whirling in a whirlwind of confusion.

I failed.

Their soul was sucked out.

They were as good as dead.

Why couldn't I save them?

Because you were not ruthless enough.

What?

Fool. You could have killed the UMAB employees that were chanting up the summoning ritual. It would have been way harder for that beast to defend the masses of followers instead of just one chunk of rock.

To kill the ones that were chanting the ritual? To kill the hundreds that were chanting in the middle of the room instead of one piece of rock?

Yes. Two or three Caladborg II would have wiped out those pieces of trash regardless of whether the beast blocked them or not because of the resulting shockwave... And you would have saved thousands.

!

You know the crux of your ideal. If you have to kill one to save ten people, ten people to save a hundred, and a hundred to save a thousand, you promised to do so without flinching. Without regretting your choice. Or have you given up your ideal like HE did?

No! You are wrong! I will follow my ideal. I will become a-

Yes, yes, we know what you want to become. And your faith in your ideal is set in stone. Yet, you failed not because of your resolve but because you didn't know how to carry out your ideal.

How to carry out my ideal?

I guess your lack of experience is the cause. After all, you have never needed to actually kill hundreds to save as many as you can. Your goal was always so simple, correct? Win the Holy Grail, save your schoolmates from Blood Fort Andromeda, stop Caster, defeat Gilgamesh, and kill Gawain. Kill one, and many will be saved. All of these individuals were clearly in the wrong, seeing their willingness to kill dozens to serve their own goal. It was the same in this situation. You viewed Voban and the altar that would sacrifice many as the primary target to be destroyed, ignoring the fact that there was a more efficient method that did not include going straight against another Campione.

!

And that's why you failed.

...

But never give up. Isn't that what you, no... We have decided to do? To shoulder the sacrifice that you made on that day filled with inferno and save as many people as you can in hopes that when you die, you will die knowing that you have done everything you can to atone for your sin on that day? Even though it is impossible, trying to become a hero that saves people and never regret your choice?

Yes. I have decided to do that.

Then look sharp. Nothing is over yet. You have more people in need of saving now. Now that a god has been summoned, innocent people will be caught in the fight between a Campione and a god. It's up to you to stop them from hurting others in their fight. But next time the similar choice is given... you know what you must do.

...

...

...

My vision cleared.

I knew what I had to do.

And the sound of laughter made me look at the large beastly figure laughing in the center of all this bloodless carnage.

Interlude 6-1

Power was coursing through her.

A large pain that filled her body along with the explosion was receding, and becoming a minor buzzing discomfort.

A foreign presence was inside her body.

It was not a god.

It was a spirit.

A spirit of great power.

A spirit of great will.

A spirit of a king.

Therefore, even as she instinctively tried to expel her, she could not do so, and after a few moment, gave up and tried a new approach: Finding out what it is, appeasing its desire, and making it leave her body willfully. Therefore, the first thing she must do was communicate with the great spirit.

She could not see him/her physical form, but she could converse with it inside her mind and body. Thankfully, whatever was going on outside of this mental mindscape would be slower than whatever was happening here. Because human mind, brain, and soul were so fast in interpreting and analyzing information that an hour spent in the mindscape would only be a few seconds in the outside world.

Now then...

Who are you?

...

Excuse me~ Who are you~?

...

Qui etes-vous?

...

Quien es usted?

...

Oh my... It's quite rude to ignore a person speaking to you, you know?

...Where am I?

Who are you?

Who are you?

Ah, pardon my rudeness. I realize that I have not been introducing myself! My name is Alice Louise, the former spokeswoman of Witenagemot of Great Britain and currently the sixth Campione's personal assistant.

... You have named yourself... As a knight, I am honor bound to tell you my name as well. Very well, my name is Arthur Pendragon, king of Britain. Now, where is this?

Oh my, King Arthur? It's an honor! Huh? Wait. You sounded like a girl just now. Are you actually a girl? Wait, don't answer that. Some legends of King Arthur are based on his rise to kingship when he was a boy through the drawing of the sword stuck in a stone, so your voice might sound feminine as a young boy...

Lady Louise! Please answer my question!

Ah! Right! Um... Hmm... It's quite hard to tell you this, but it seems that you are in my body.

Your body?

Yes. My body.

But... Why?

Well, my Lord and I were trying to stop a tyrant from summoning... Well, in a simpler term, a god.

A god?

Yes. A god. A Heretical God, in fact. Generally, whenever a Heretic God is summoned, they tend to wreak havoc and destruction in our world. Therefore, we were trying to stop the summoning.

But... Why am I here? In your body?

I don't have a clear answer, for the last thing I remember is the explosion that occurred from the ritual that would have brought down a god into this world. Although... Seeing that you are King Arthur, I must guess that the artifact that my Lord had provided me has acted as a catalyst to summon you inside my body as well as the god... Though since my Lord's artifact was not of this world, I seem to have managed to avoid exploding due to housing a god inside my body. You are not a god, if my assumption is correct. No, from what I know of my Lord's story and experience, you must be... a Heroic Spirit?

!

But that's quite weird. I heard that Heroic Spirits were like forces of nature much like gods. So I shouldn't be able to house you inside my body. Actually, the strain that you are exhibiting into my body is nothing more than a strain that happens when I house a spirit of great strength inside my body.

...

Hmm... I sense that you know something, but you must not want to tell me?

Yes... Forgive me, but it is of a personal matter. Regardless, I shouldn't have been summoned here regardless of the catalyst. Alaya would not send me to a place without a Holy Grail-

Ah! You are looking for a Holy Grail too? Strangely, My Majesty, Shirou Emiya is looking for the Grail as well!

!? Did you say... Shirou Emiya!? And what do you mean by the Holy Grail-?

H~mm? Yes. He is the sixth Campione as well as my king. Why do you wish to... Ah, I see... My my... You know him as well? And you are looking for Holy Grail like him as well... I guess you are from the other dimension? Sir Shirou told me some details of the war he had in the other side, but he never told me that his partner was a girl!

That doesn't matter! What matters is that I demand that you tell me everything.

Wowie, you are a king all right, to demand such thing from a fair maiden so brusquely...

Ah! I apologize. It was not my intention to slight you. It's just that... His safety and obtaining the Grail was in my best interests some time ago...

Ah, you wish to protect him as well? Well... I guess I can tell you if your intentions are to protect my King, seeing that you must be old acquaintances... And my sixth sense is telling me that you don't wish him harm.

...

Okay! I will tell you what is happening. I have much time here, after all.

My thanks, Lady Alice.

Interlude 6-2

"!" Her breathing hitched at the all too familiar presence.

...Wha-... What is this... child?

She could hear the wonder and shock of Sir Knight next to her. The aura emanating from the underground cavern was much similar to her lord.

Yet it was not her lord that had been summoned.

The power from the entity was too weak.

No, the entity that was inside was not a god.

Then what was it?

Her lord was sleeping somewhere in this mortal realm. She knew that. yet this foreign had arrived with the other god.

And it was so... so much similar to that of her lord.

Just what was happening?

Should she go into the mountain to investigate?

Or should she wait and see what would happen?

A fight between two Campiones and a God of enormous power would occur.

What should she do?

Do not go in there my child.

'Sir Knight?"

Whatever is happening, the presence in there is not him. No matter how similar it is, you know well as I that we cannot place ourselves in the war between titans and hope to survive. Whatever has appeared in there, it is not our lord. The being down in the mountain is not a god, and the aura of steel that would turn this region into metal just by his presence is not present.

Her heart ached for her lord, yet she understood what her guardian was saying. However, if... If in an off chance that whatever in there WAS actually her lord...

Do not.

Her knight placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping any chance of her going toward the similar yet distant aura.

"I understand, Sir Knight..." She whispered, and prepared herself. They had planned out an ambush, after all.

Third Person Point of View: Herakles

He stood at the center of the room covered with dust. A being easily taller than two meters and reaching three meters, an iron skirt around his waist, the cape of lion tied around his neck, his bow and arrow slung across his shoulder and a white sword slung on his metal skirt without any sheath. He was muscular to the point of being able to make professional wrestlers run away crying, with black hair and black eyes that spoke of experience in battle.

"What is this?" He muttered to himself as he looked at his hands. The last moment that he remembered of his life was when he had consumed the poisoned cup given by Deianeira, falling down the floor beside her crying face of regret. After that... He did not remember.

Then, he noticed the presence of the being beside him.

"!?" He took a step back as he felt the presence radiating from the being. The power was insignificant compared to his, but the aura... the sheer presence this being excluded... It was an aura comparable to his own, and he was the strongest demigod of his time. However, when he set his eyes upon the being in front of him, he ignored all the pressure that was radiating from the being beside him and stared.

A golden blonde hair that was tied to a bun.

Blue dress armor with metal platings on on the chest with gauntlets on the arm and side armor for the legs to protect it from most major blows.

The clear green eyes with depth like a grassy plain that stretched on infinitely that was staring back at him with confusion.

Clearly, the being in front of him was barely half his height and worthless in terms of size, but the being gave the presence similar to himself.

A presence of a king.

Or was it a queen?

The woman(man?) beside him did not match himself in the category of power, but the sheer elegance, authority, brilliance pouring out of the girl instantly earned his respect.

[Static]

No, what was this? His senses were being disrupted.

The figure in front of him flickered, briefly showing a visage of a young platinum blond haired girl that was wearing a short blue legging and skimpy white dress that covered only her bosom.

The brief disruption showed an image of a noblewoman, an aura of royalty that was similar, yet not quite same as the king, like the aura of a princess.

And as quick as it had come, the image of the platinum haired girl turned back into a golden blond hair of the king(?).

"You." His voice rumbled as he addressed the being front of him, trying to determine who this person in front of him was.

The being in front of him turned toward him, showing a face of shock. "Herakles!?" the being said in shock while readying a golden sword that shone with bright like like the sun during spring.

Oh? She knew his name? That's not a surprise. All of Greece and beyond knew his name during the old times.

"ahahaha...hahahahahaha...HaHaHaHAHAHAHAHA!" A laughter boomed from across the room , making both himself and the being beside him look at the direction of the noise and see... A wolf?

A large, 30 meter tall bipedal wolf was laughing while looking at him... Or both himself and the being beside him.

"A GOD! A STRONG ONE AT THAT! YES! THIS IS WHAT I WANTED, A HUNT LIKE NO OTHER!" The wolf cried out in triumph with its distorted and rough voice and howled toward the ceiling, power radiating from him that was comparable to himself and the being beside him as well.

Wait, did he just point at him and say that he was a god?

Herakles looked down at his hands once again and came to a realization.

He was a god.

A Heretical God.

Then, another power presented itself along with a thick intent to kill, making Herakles snap out of his shock and look at the source of power and hostile emotion, and saw a red haired boy.

"Voban." The boy said simply, but the burning determination in his voice could be heard throughout the large chamber.

"This voice... Shirou?" The being... No, was it alright to call her a she? She exuded such an aura that it was derogatory to call her a human or a simple girl. She seemed curious as she seemed to recognize the voice of the boy.

I am the strongest, the greatest, the king of all mankind.

To crush, to build, to rule, the might of the almighty flows through me.

O, o, o! Supreme strength, unlike any other, smite down the foe in front of me!

The wolf chortled and seemed to regard the boy with a disdainful glare. "Ho-Oh? You will attack me once again, brat? You cann-"

"Shut up, dog. You have no right to speak up to me." The red haired boy spoke up calmly.

"Wha-" The wolf became incredulous at the boy's attitude and tried to speak out, but was once again interrupted.

"I said, be silent!" the red haired boy swept his hand out as he yelled, silencing the wolf with sheer amount of charisma he seemed to exude by just being present. "You have sacrificed MY peasants to building up your toy(Herakles had a distinct feeling that the red haired boy sneered toward him, whose body was visible over the smoke thanks to his large body unlike the blond haired being beside him) such actions are unforgivable! Not only have you stolen and used up MY things, but you have dared to injure ME! The one and only KING!"

"Wh-What? Why does Shiro sound like Gilgamesh? What has happened to him?" The girl beside him stammered out as she scrunched up her face in a confused expression. Then, as if she was receiving information from elsewhere, she became immediately calm as if she understood everything. "I see..."

"Of course, for this travesty, the punishment fitting is worse than death!" The newly named Shirou commanded out neutrally as he began walking toward the large wolf, the stone floor beneath him cracking as he lightly stomped in his steps. "However, praise me, for my generosity dog, I am a glorious person who is gentle on animals. Therefore, I shall only rip your head off and stick it in a pike so that Everyone will see YOU as an example to never steal MY things. I won't even go into torturing you."

Herakles, feeling slightly miffed at the red head's apparent ignoring of his presence as well as calling him a toy, showed his displeasure by growling loudly.

The teen glanced at him,but did not stop walking toward the thirty meter wolf. "Stay silent, primate. I will address you after I have put down this rabid dog."

The wolf, now angered by the boy's arrogance, began breathing in and out with steam coming out of his mouth due to the rage he was feeling. "You... You DARE!?" He roared, and charged at the red head, ignoring Herakles as well. The redhead began running toward the wolf as well.

Herakles, despite his awesome presence, was completely ignored.

Herakles did not take that kindly.

He jumped, leaving behind the golden haired beauty that saw him streak toward the wolf...

Or between the wolf and the boy.

Just before wolf's claws and the redhead's fists could clash, Herakles imposed himself between them, grabbing hold of the red head's punch and grabbing the claw of the wolf as well.

A major shock wave was produced when Shirou punched the palm of Herakles' hand, pushing back Herakles' hand slightly and making him impressed at the boy's strength. The wolf's claw did not even scratch Herakle's hand, and made a gravelly sound as if the claw was rubbing against stone.

"How dare you stop me!" The so called Shirou snarled as he backed off, and rushed toward Herakles again with a haymaker.

"Poor form. Your strength is great, but you obviously haven't experienced unarmed combat from anyone." Herakles carelessly stated as he knocked aside the punch that could have blown a hole through his chest if it had connected. "My name is Herakles! I beat down a Nemean Lion and destroyed countless others with my bare fists alone! You think you can match me with that amateur skills?"

"!?"

Herakles put his large hand on the midsection of the boy's boy, set his legs firmly onto the ground, and twisted.

"!"

First Person Point of View: Shirou

I flew barely five meters before crashing onto the ground. I stood up quickly with a furious look on my face, the rage at the wolf turning toward the giant that had halted my righteous attack as the king. "You dare touch me, Ap-Gurgh" Immense pain burst forth from my insides, making me fall onto my knees and throw up blood.

"This is the skill that I used again Nemean Lion, where I had to damage the internal body of the beastly god because my club, fists, and sword did not even scratch the hide of the beast. Your organs should have become a paste by now. That should teach you to never disrespect me again, boy." The giant god remarked with a casual face and tone,but a vicious glow in his eyes that spoke of his satisfaction in his action.

"Shirou!" A golden blonde haired girl appeared from the direction of the altar as well, standing in front of me as she lifted her golden sword in order to protect me.

Wait, she's-

"Sa- Ber?" I ground out,

No, it was impossible. Saber could not possibly be here. This was a different dimension, a different reality. However, more than confusion at her arrival, I felt my rage spike with shame. Having a woman stand in front of me, protecting me from my enemies, was a major blow to my pride as a king. Even though she was my partner in the Grail War who had not been broken to the power of the Command Seal to protect us, I could not stand to let her fight in my behest.

"Get out of the way!" I snarled as I pushed her aside, the power of my Authority letting me do it with ease. It was weird. The blonde haired girl seemed indignant, but she could not resist my push. If she was still the Servant Saber that I had always known, the push should not have stopped her from standing in front of me.

It seemed as though she had been reduced to the power of a normal human... Or as normal she could get.

Herakles peered down at me with an interest in his eyes, "Hoh-? You have not lost your consciousness? I thought having your insides turned into a grinded meat would kill you but-" Then, he paused as he was considering something and looked down at his hands and then at my midsection. "Ah, I see. No wonder the feeling was quite a bit off. You stepped back at the last moment. It seems that the Campione instinct is still unparalleled. Still, your intestines should be damaged, no?" He chuckled as still held onto Voban's claw.

"Don't ignore me!" The wolf cried out in rage, bearing down on Herakles with his claws and teeth. Even if Herakles was a giant, the Thirty meter tall wolf's strike seemed as though a whole grey avalanche was bearing down upon him, full of sharp teeth and and claws that would easily gauge out steel like scooping up snow.

In response, Herakles laughed and the golden skin of the lion hanging around his neck fused into his body, making his body glow with golden hue. Then, he ground his feet to the ground and protected his head and nether regions with his arm.

The claws struck from all sides, creating a scratching noise as if the claws were scratching skin, but the claws did not penetrate the skin of the golden giant, and with the giant's feet stuck on the ground, the dozens of strikes from the wolf did not make the giant even take a step back.

I did not miss this chance.

I rushed in, not caring about the cry of alarm from the blonde haired girl with my eyes misted with red of rage, the Authority of The Mighty still rushing through me. With the power of the Authority in my legs, I zipped toward him faster than an airplane and swung my fist.

"DIE MAGGOT!" I screamed out as I swung, my punch connecting at the giant's back and creating another shockwave with my punch.

Blood gushed out from my mouth as the internal damage in my body became aggravated with the excess movement.

However, I didn't even care as the giant was sent flying away like a giant golden cannonball and struck the thirty meter tall wolf's chest. Both of them were sent flying to the wall, and the stadium shuddered as the damage from the explosion and the current mayhem continued to make the ritual ground shudder, and the ceiling began to collapse, burying the soulless innocents with millions of pounds of ground.

The mountain was literally collapsing on top of us.

The silver wolf's body slowly unstuck itself from the wall and collapsed on top of the golden blob stuck on its chest., falling down onto the ground with a crash.

I collapsed onto my knees, coughing up blood.

"Shirou!" Saber called out from behind me, running in front of me and stopping my upper body from hitting the ground. "Stop fighting! we have to treat your wound first."

The power of The Mighty disappeared, and I returned back to myself.

"Sa-ber... Why-, no, How are you here?" I asked, blood dribbling down my chin.

The question went unanswered for now as the thirty meter wolf rocketed from the ground and stuck in the ceiling with a spread-eagled position, its eyes rolled to the back of its head to signify its unconscious state.

The golden skinned Herakles was standing in the center of the place the wolf was previously lying on with a face of rage in contrast to the look of interest a few moments before. Now THAT looked similar to Herakles of my world, with steam coming from his mouth and his red eyes glowing with furious intensity of a beast.

"It seems our talk has to wait. Shirou, rest here. I shall defeat him." Saber said resolutely, standing in front of me with her golden sword starting to shine bright.

My first urge at her words were to convince her to run away from this fight, but my base Campione instincts told me to trust in Saber. Therefore, I grimaced and replied. "He's not someone you can defeat with Noble Phantasms. I need to activate an Authority, then I should be able to restrict him. Please hold him off until I can activate it."

Herakles started to walk toward us slowly, chunks of boulders dropping behind him before Voban's large body detached itself from the ceiling and came crashing down onto the ground right behind him.

Saber looked as if she would protest, but her indignant look died down and her face blanked as she was considering something. Then, "... I understand." Saber softly replied with a tone of steel in her voice.

I began to whisper out the incantation.

The strongest steel of binding,

Herakles noticed this and began running toward my position. Although he was already mad like hell, it seemed that his rage must have blinded him from sniping at me with the bow and arrows at his back. If he was actually calm enough to access the situation, he would have surely realized that he could have shot multiple times with with his massive bow.

However, he wasn't calm.

Therefore, Saber had a chance to stall him.

She did not have to fight this god. All she had to do was defend against one of his strikes, and then I would have enough time to finish this incantation.

The mightiest bond of friendship,

"You will oppose me as well, girl? Then I shall crush you and strike down that impertinent brat as well!" Herakles roared out loud as he ran.

Herakles jumped, leaping in an arc that would smash my body with his fist, and Saber also began running, prana bursting from the soles of her feet to giver her a boost in speed.

However, her speed was nowhere near the speed that I had seen her move at during the Holy Grail War. Although the prana bursting from her feet was like fuel bursting from the soles of her boots to let her propel forward like a rocket, the speed was similar to those that used the magic [Leap] in this world.

Superhuman, yet not even close to that of a Servant.

"You will do no such thing as long as I'm able, Herakles! Prepare yourself!" Saber, regardless of her own knowledge that she was far outmatched against Herakle in any kind of combat, ran fearlessly toward the giant.

The greatest restriction of the gods.

"Ex-" Saber grit out as she ran, her golden sword shining brighter.

Saber leapt, meeting the giant in the middle of the arc, her golden sword held up high and brought down just as he punched at her.

"-Calibur!"

Born from the memories of companions,

The golden ray of prana that was accelerated with Saber's factor of dragon to intensify the kinetic energy to the point of being able to split open a mountain burst out of the sword.

It was the property of Excalibur, Sword of Promised Victory, the most majestic holy sword that symbolized King Arthur, forged by the planet as the crystallization of the wishes of mankind stored and tempered within the planet.

It was a strike that would slice through anything standing in its way like Excalibur Galantine.

And it did not even scratch the skin of Herakles.

The Authority of the gods in this realm was structured to be surpassed only by other Authorities.

The Authority of Herakles, Nemean Skin, was an Authority specifically created to withstand and nullify any kind of damage from sharp objects, including swords, arrows, and even the sharp ray of prana, and significantly reduce the damage of blows from blunt objects like my fist.

Saber's Excalibur was not an Authority.

It was a Noble Phantasm.

Normally, it would have sliced through the defenses of a God and killed him instantly.

However, since the Authority of Nemean Skin was active...

The ray of light did not even penetrate the outer edge of the giant's skin.

Obey me, the contractor of chains,

"UWooooooOOO?!"

However, the kinetic force of the ray of light forced Herakles back toward the wall, giving me ample time to finish my incantation.

ENKIDU!

The dusts of gold appeared all around us, filling up the whole ritual site.

Herakles grunted and looked around him in wonder, not at all worried about the Authority that I activated, but curious about what kind of Authority I was planning to use. It was a supreme confidence befitting the most famous hero of Greek Mythology, not worried that he would lose, and egotistically confident of his own abilities.

The Authority mercilessly dug into my mind, searching for a fitting sacrifice to the usage of my power like the last time I went against a Heretic God. It penetrated into my skull like a rapier, stabbing deeper and deeper until it found a fitting sacrifice.

And it found its target.

Sakura.

The gentle Sakura who had become a part of his family during his time in middle school, the purple haired girl that had integrated herself to his everyday life. The girl that-

[Static]

Wah-?

The memories were being pulled out of my head rapidly like water being drained out of the sink, impossible to grasp hold of and unable to stop its gradual descent into the dark hole, leaving my soul and mind and elongating into a long, wavy, invisible cord.

"Gargh-!" I stopped myself from screaming out loud, but my face must have conveyed the pain that the Authority demanded from me as a part of my heart and soul was wrenched with pain at a loss for which I no longer knew about, since Saber looked at me with alarm from the corner of her eye, still keeping her body turned toward the front warily towards Herakles.

However, even with a sacrifice, my goal was complete.

An invisible matrix materialized in my hands, stretching and twisting around my body, and the golden dusts congregated to the matrix, filling it with substance.

In a few seconds, a storm of chains surrounded my body, whirling around and levitating off the ground.

Herakles laughed. It was not a laugh of amusement. It was a barking laugh. A laugh with an undertone of harsh malignancy. "I had not intended to battle against the Campiones of this era when I went in between you and the wolf, Devil King. But it seems that my pride as a king to not be ignored, and your impertinence has made our battle inevitable." He called out loud as he began walking.

Unbelievable pressure began to flow from Herakles, pushing all things away from him like a reverse blackhole, sending debris and bodies flying away.

"Well, boy?! Do you have any last words?!" He shouted out, the ceiling finally starting to collapse on top of us after all the abuse it endured.

I wrecked my brain for something to say, but I have to say, The Mighty has been an Authority that brings more trouble than it is worth, making me needlessly search for conflicts even though I don't have to. Thinking about the fight with Gawain, I decided to say this at least. Killing each other could wait for a few moments. I should at least give myself a last impression that is at least a little amicable instead of the total bastard persona that I have been using till now. And hopefully, I won't have to fight him, pleasing him

"Umm... Sorry!" I yelled out, ignoring the small stream of blood that gushed out of my mouth. The inhuman endurance given to a Campione helping me not writhe around the floor in agony.

"Wha- what are you doing, Shirou?!" Saber looked at me with an incredulous expression, seeing that I was apologizing to an enemy in this ridiculous situation when the mountain was falling on top of us with one of the strongest beings standing about 50 yards pissed enough to punt me to the moon.

"My Authority makes me become a completely arrogant prick, so I just rushed at you and called you..." I grimaced. "Names. Anyway, is there a way to end our confrontation without killing each other, harming each other, harming other people, and destroying the general environment around us?" I learned that not all Heretic Gods were necessarily harmful to other people. If Herakles turned out to be an honorable sort that did not like chaos or destruction of the today's society and did not cause harm to anyone, then I didn't have to fight against him.

Even if my blood sang to me, coaxing me to fight him, my natural enemy, I ruthlessly crushed the instinct and feeling, taking control of my mind through slow breaths.

Heracles looked at me dumbfoundedly. Then he began laughing out loud.

"GWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

Then he remembered that he wanted to pound me onto the ground like a pro boxer pounds a punching bag, and stopped laughing instantly, focusing his piercing gaze onto me, making me feel as though he was trying to find what I was.

"You... You are a curious King."

"What?"

"To become a Devil King, the most important quality that a human must have is to have a drive, a desperate will to survive and kill anything that threatens its life that transcends the absolute power of a god. As you continue being a Devil King, your previous drive and will to survive should increase."

I slowly raised one of my eyebrows. "As informative as this is, I don't get how the point in what you have just said matters regarding myself."

Herakle grinned ferally. "Don't you get it boy? To a Devil King, A Heretical God like myself is the natural enemy of this world. Only Heretical Gods may equal a Devil King in strength. Therefore, with your inhuman will to survive that has only increased with your transformation to a Devil King, you should have designated me as an enemy that has to be destroyed or a predator that has be avoided for you to survive."

"So the moment I saw you rise beneath the wolf-"

"Yes, your thought process should have led to either run away or attack me. What you have suggested right now is a coexistence that is neither fight nor flight. Such option is unavailable if you are a being that cares about itself. So either you are a being that didn't have an instinct for self preservation even before you became a Devil King, or you hold the lives of others as being far more important than yours."

I cocked my head to the side in confusion.

It was true that I would forfeit my life without a pause if

"To answer your question boy, no. I will not stop. Even though your violence toward me was a response to my violence toward you, the fact stands that I am a Heretic God. As a Heretic God, I will destroy, rape, kill, and rule over the humans as I have before

The three of us turned towards the wolf that was throwing boulders off its body, a storm starting to generate from its body with lightnings crackling intensely around it. And soon, a cyclon appeared inside the mountain, the upward force of the natural disaster punching through the ceiling and rising up into the sky outside, where rain clouds began to gather rapidly.

Then, an outward blast of wind that dwarfed the outward gravitational force of Herakles came from the wolf.

"AWWWOOOOOOOOO!" With the sudden downpour, three more cyclones that soon turned into tornados burst through the ceiling, making the mountain crash on top of Herakles, Saber, and I.

"SABER!" I yelled out as I rushed toward the blonde with my chains giving me a boost as I struck it into the ground and flung myself to the girl clad in blue and silver.

"Shirou! The knights from Red Bronze Cross are still trapped in this mountain!" She pointed at the knights that were at the entrance to the ritual site, the group of four that included wounded Diavolo Rosso in their midst, judging by the unconscious person with red cape that was being rescued by the other three.

They would not have enough time to escape.

Ignoring how Saber could have known that the men in red uniforms were from Red Bronze Cross, I lifted up both Saber and myself and flung ourselves toward the group, landing beside them, I expanded Enkidu around us like a vortex of cocoon, shielding us from any falling debris.

"Mamma mia! Where the hell did you come from?!" Antonio yelled out in alarm as he reflexively jumped back.

"Do you know where Alice is?" I asked to the group of Knights, noticing that the platinum haired girl was not with the Diavolo Rosso.

"Fuck! No! She disappeared on us with the explosion!" Antonio growled out, his mouth spewing out more obscene words as the situation continued to look grim.

"Shirou! Do not worry about Alice! She is safe!" Saber yelled out amidst the cacophony of the collapsing ceiling.

I wanted to ask how she knew that, but the moment I looked at Saber, she shined brightly and was instead replaced by Alice. "Ah! Shirou! Please don't worry for me. It seems King Arthur was temporarily borrowing my body."

…

…

...

I would have asked her just how the hell THAT had happened, but at the same moment she transformed, the mountain finally came crashing down, forcing me to turn my focus onto the millions of tons of rock and boulders rushing on top of us instead of just standing with a gap on my mouth at Alice.

Even with millions of tons of rocks on top of us, I only needed a minimal amount of concentration and power to keep the chains afloat.

Currently, we were stuck under a mountain in a circular dome upheld by the Chain of Heavens. The dome was about ten meters high with a radius of ten meters. Easily enough for more than fifty person to fit into the space.

"Is everyone alright?" I called out to the four men and Alice.

"*Cough* Yeah, we are alright. How bout you, Your Majesty?" One of the knights asked me from the back.

"...I have seen better days." I responded with a crooked smile, blood continuing to occasionally come up from my stomach. Normally, I should have been collapsed onto the dirt and squirming, dying slowly in a painful ache across my body. However, the increased endurance as a Campione and my ability to stay active despite the pain coursing throughout my body honed throughout the countless nights in the shack helped me stay awake and standing.

Seriously, this unreasonable body of mine... I don't know whether I should be happy that I have this strong body or be sad that my body has become one that is not human's.

"Shirou..." Alice stared at my blood soaked clothes with a worried look.

A little tension left my body at her worry over my being. "Hey, it's alright. I'm a Campione, remember? There are people with worse injuries than me." I nodded at Diavolo Rosso, whose top clothes had all but burned off. However, the red cloak around his shoulders must must have had an additional protective property as it was unblemished and gave off a slight glow over his badly burned body.

Then, I stiffened as I realized how Alice was dressed as well.

Her clothes had also almost burned off, leaving her blue jeans hanging tatters high at her thigh, showing most of her leg.

However, that was not the problem.

The problem was her top.

Her white blouse had all but disintegrated, leaving her white lacy bras in open view.

The weird thing was that her skin was without any injuries. Rather, her body was radiating a healthy visage as if she was the prime example of a healthy person.

And that made the contrast between her skin and her clothes all too clear, and gave her a slightly erotic look as her hair fell down her shoulder and covered her left side.

Alice saw me stiffen up and looked down at herself, her eyes widening as she realized where I was looking at.

For a few moments, she trembled as if she was fighting against an inner urge to do something, and slumped with her arms across her breasts and curled up while looking at me with a sly smile that seemed a tad bit forced, as if she wanted to play it off as being foxy, but was unable to completely give off a wry image due to her inner embarrassment at her situation. "My, my, Shirou. Whether you are a Campione or not, it seems you can't resist your male urges. Like what you see?"

I have had many experience with her teasing, and I had experience with further teasing with Tohsaka, who was at least hundred times worse when she teased me.

Therefore, even I, who was one of the most blundering idiots ever even in my opinion, tried to gather my wits and mental power with a small intake of breath and launch a counter.

Emphasis on tried.

Despite the strange lucidity of my brain in this kind of situation.

Despite not being a virgin anymore after the Holy Grail War.

Despite maturing(in my opinion) throughout the three months I spent with Alice.

My automatic subconscious response was this.

"Wha-Like-Huh?" I sputtered, before what she said comprehended fully throughout my body and my face began to burn up like a dry wood. The small lucid part of my mind tried to desperately give out a coherent response in this situation to not look like a fool, and messed up my situation even further.

"Yes! I do!" I cried out, only to realize what I have just said a moment ago, making both Alice and my face burn up like gasoline. I tried to remedy the situation, but the rest of my words... Well... "I mean no! Wait... I mean... Ummm..."

Digging myself in a deeper hole...

That statement has never been truer for me than this situation.

"Oy, oy! Leave your love talk until we got out of this situation! Diavolo Rosso is still injured here!" Alto interrupted with a twitch in his eyebrow, rescuing me from a dangerous position while taking off his red jacket and handing it to Alice for her to wear.

Alice seemed at loss about what she should say in this situation, but when she looked at my embarrassed condition, she began to giggle, and rubbed my cheek affectionately. "Fufufufu... Shirou, you are so cute!"

"GAH! Stop your flirting damn it!" Gantz cried out, flinging his hands up in annoyance. "The two of you are so damn relaxed in this situation! Can't you see that a person is slowly dying here?!" He pointed at Diavolo Rosso.

I winced at his rebuke and thought for a moment, thinking up a list of what I could do, and came to a decision.

"Alice, heal up Diavolo Rosso. I'll make a way out of this place in a few moments. We need everyone mobile after we get out here. Herakles and Voban must be fighting up there." To punctuate my point, a roar of rage from Voban resounded through the rubble, along with a crashing sound of various objects.

"Shirou! You need a healing as well!" Alice protested, but I held up my hands and smiled.

"Don't worry. I can take care of my own injuries. Just healing up Diavolo Rosso will be enough for now."

Alice bit her lips, but trusted my judgment and turn towards Diavolo Rosso, a book appearing in her hand and starting to shine with an ephemeral light.

Instinctively, I Structural Grasped the book, and what I found surprised me.

Book of the Wisdom of Solomon.

One of the books of Bible, one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books bound with Septuagint, along with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Sirach.

It was said to be written by King Solomon, and although it did not have any spells written in the book itself, it served as a catalyst in which Alice's spells could be amplified about ten times its original self.

Added to the fact that Alice's own reserve of magical power could rival Tohsaka's and that she had a myriad of spells under her nose, her power output could rival Caster's.

It basically made her a magical juggernaut.

Alice whipped her head towards me and glared at me suspiciously. "Did you think something insulting just now?"

"N-no? Of course not! Ahahaha..." I flinched and weakly chuckled with sweat pouring down my back due to her sixth sense.

Damn, she could be scary like that when she wanted to be.

Shooting me a suspicious look, Alice turned back to Diavolo Rosso and began to call out an incantation, as I began to call out my own.

Feet that can shake the earth,

The roar that can split the heavens,
The breath that can scorch the world,

The sacred animal of heaven,

The damned animal of mankind,

Hear the call of your slayer, and appear before me!

A black voice appeared in front of me, and a massive foot appeared from the void, kicking away some of the rubble surrounding us while making tremors as its feet landed on the ground beneath it.

Slowly, the creature before me stepped out of the void, snorting out a steam as it reared its head to observe the surroundings.

It was a bull size of a truck.

It had wings on its side that was currently tucked in.

It was the Bull of Heaven which had wreaked havoc in the world of men during the rule of Gilgamesh, being defeated by the King of Uruk and his partner Enkidu with a Chain of Heaven.

And as soon as it left the void, golden chains wrapped around it in a moment, making it snort and struggle in surprise, trying to get out of its bond.

However, I could not let it do that.

This legendary creature before me was uncontrollable unless I restricted it with the Chain of Heaven and [Imprint] myself upon it, making myself its master. Therefore, even with its saddening cry, I touched my hand upon its brows.

With a flash of light, the bull became my loyal servant.

And while {Imprinting], I aligned myself with this bull, earning myself an ability to regenerate rapidly as a part of the bull's power.

Although I took the same damage as the bull if it were injured, the bull's ability of hyper regeneration helped in this state as the injuries inside my body was rapidly healed as though it was never there.

"So you are the Sixth Campione?" A voice, deep enough to be considered very masculine, but not overly so that it sounded rough, came from behind me.

I looked back to see that Diavolo Rosso was up, facing me with an analyzing expression that Duke Goddodin had when he first met me in the apartment after the fight against Gawain.

Currently, he was almost healed up completely with a few case of burns disappearing from his body rather rapidly with a blue glow coming out of Alice's hand.

"Yes, I am Shirou Emiya." I nodded back to him, getting on top of the bull easily with the hovering chains being used as a foothold. I noted that he was all healed up, and briefly considered resting for a few moments, before remembering that a city was right beside the mountain, and the fight could escalate between the two supreme forces above such that the city could be wrecked by tomorrow morning. "And get on, quickly, we don't know how much havoc the other Campione and the Heretic God are making up there."

The other members of Copper Black Cross seemed like they wanted to protest at my merciless command to suit up for battle again with their leader having just come out of severe amount of injury, but Diavolo Rosso just held up one of his hand and they quieted down immediately.

Diavolo Rosso stared into my eyes for a few moments, analyzing my body and face for a short moment, before nodding and confidently striding up to the bull to quickly get on the bull's back as well with a help of the chains.

The other Knights looked more hesitant at the idea of riding the monstrosity that was before them.

However, Alice just rolled her eyes and hopped onto the back of the bull as well, prompting Aldo, Antonio, and Gantz to get on as well.

Soon as they got onto the bull, the divine chains contracted around us and wrapped around the bull like a suit, keeping us cocooned against it.

And the bull leapt.

It was not really leaping, but flying. Although it had wings by its side, it did not even flap its wings as it bulldozed through the rubble, sending rocks flying as it effortlessly pushed aside rocks as big as itself and rose above the pile, bursting out of the collapsed mountain with ease.

The outside was... hell.

Dozens of tornadoes were coalescing around the mountain, dragging up boulders and houses around the mountain like a great tendrils of gray fingers that ravaged the ground and grabbed away whatever it could.

Lightnings flashed, crashing onto the mountain and the city next to it, creating explosions and fires from each lightning. The amount of lightnings falling down onto the ground seemed to be in such an amount that it seemed as though it was a rain of electricity.

The rain poured like as though a waterfall had appeared over the entire region and was emptying all of its water, the sewer system overflowing with water, and slowly making the city become underwater.

Thousands of skeletons walked around with their weapons, attacking every source of lifeforms on the mountain including animals and random passersby.

On the peak of the mountain, two figures were illuminated with flashes of lightning.

" #%^ ^ #$%#% #% #$%#"

Herakles roared, his inhuman beastly roar that I was familiar with during the Holy Grail War resounding throughout the mountain. With his roar, he also swung the Millenium Cross that was already missing one of its sides right at the thirty meter tall wolf, the 66 meter long mass of metal smashing into the wolf's form and sending it flying from the precipice.

With the blow, Millenium Cross broke apart into thousands of fragments.

As Herakles tried to follow the wolf down the precipice, fifty human shaped figures leapt at the Heretic God, blasting him with various mystical powers.

" #$%$^%^^*^&%$#% #% % #% #%#"

Herakles ripped through the various mystical attacks generated from the undead servants of the oldest Campione, but was caught off guard when one carefully aimed rock smashed into his right eye.

"! #$%^&*()_)(*&^%$ #$%^&*(*&^%$#"

Although the rock broke apart instead when it smashed into Herakles' eye, it helped to blind him for some moments while the wolf retreated from the golden giant.

The moment Herakles landed back on the ground, dozens of lightnings and tornadoes struck from above, electrocuting him as the tornadoes grinded against his skin.

A magical power burst out from Herakles, creating a semi solid bubble that pushed away the elemental attacks like a barrier.

"HAHAHAHAHA! No matter what I throw at you, you shrug them off without any lasting damage! HERACLES! YOU ARE A GOD LIKE NO OTHER!" Voban howled with joy as more and more undeads burst out from the ground and silver wolves appeared out of the void. An army was created with a whim of a Campione. And they all rushed towards Heracles, trying to dogpile and subdue the Heretical God.

Voban paused his howling and stood still for a few seconds.

Then, Voban suddenly crossed his arms and laid down onto the ground.

I was wondering what the large wolf was doing, until a sense of extreme foreboding hit like a jackhammer.

"!" I pulled on the golden chains around the Bull of Heaven, trying to get as far away as possible.

"Kya?!" Alice yelped as the bull abruptly turned its momentum and began rapidly ascending upwards toward the sky. "Shirou! What are you doing?!" Alice called out frantically as she held onto my body... Which was unnecessary since a golden chain was wrapped around each person onboard the flying bull.

I didn't have to answer.

From the pile of undeads and silver wolves, a guttural voice of something inhuman rang out.

The voice was not a roar.

The voice was not a scream.

And yet all of us could hear what the golden giant had said clearly even over the roar of the tornadoes and the storm around us.

"Nine Lives: Shooting Hundred Heads"

...

I was not sure what had happened even with my reinforced sight.

One moment, Heracles reached for the sword hung around his waist, a purely white sword made out of the claws of Nemean Lion.

The next moment, a hundred supersonic slashes burst out with Heracles at the epicenter, slicing through the armies that Voban had summoned like hot knife through butter.

The bull snorted in alarm as the multiple slashes of supersonic airwaves created from swings of the giant flew over to us as well.

We were lucky that we were strapped to the bull.

The bull dove and twisted like a demented roller coaster, trying to dodge as many sonic slashes as possible while shielding us from those that he couldn't dodge outright.

"Ghk!" I ground out as various slashes also appeared on my body and disappeared a few seconds later like magic.

This amount of pain was nothing like the years I spent in the shack, trying to further my magecraft, so I endured the pain and focused on the ground.

The visage shocked me.

Before Herakles had used his skill, thousands of undeads were piling onto him.

Before Herakles had used his skill, hundreds of divine wolves were biting onto his limbs and body to restrain him.

Before Herakles had used his skill, dozens of special undeads of Great Knights that were killed personally by Voban for him to call upon their full power were attacking the golden giant with their weapons.

Now, there was only a few undeads left that had been miraculously placed on a spot of the mountain untouched by the slashes of wind.

Voban himself was climbing back to his feet with his arm looking as though its skin had been stuck in a blender. However, the skin was repairing itself rapidly like myself while having summoned the Bull of Heaven.

In the epicenter of the destruction, Herakles stood with hundreds of slashes marking the mountain from the technique that he exhibited with his white sword.

The sword itself was not an Authority. Although it had unnatural sharpness and a property of "ripping" when it struck like a saw dragging against a weapon, it was not one of Herakles' Authority. However, its sharpness could match any Noble Phantasms as it was made out of the claws and teeth of Nemean Lion that was used to penetrate into the Lion's skin when Herakles had trouble skinning the lion after he had killed it.

And any rain that touched the sword was evaporating due to the heat caused by the shear friction that the sword had against air with the speed the sword was swung.

The Authority that Herakles had just used.

I understood what it was just by looking at the history of the blade

Nine Lives: Shooting Hundred Heads.

It was an authority of killing multiple targets at once, immortalized through a tale of killing a hydra that had more than hundred heads. I could be used through a sword, a bow and arrow, or even bare hands. It was an authority where hundreds of attacks that were faster than speed of sound were generated when the person was against an overwhelming number of enemies/targets.

"Shirou, look." Alice interrupted my analysis of the sword as it appeared in the Unlimited Blade Works. She was pointing toward the city of Skopje, where dozens of tornadoes were ripping through the city, the flood produced from rain making the city slowly become filled with water.

"We have to stop Voban first." Diavolo Rosso calmly stated as he looked at the general environment around them. "He is the one who is calling down all the natural disasters as well as the undead army. Look." He pointed down toward where the mountain began to thin into the the landslide that was beginning to happen, skeletal warriors were beginning to come down to the city, where they began to attack everything indiscriminately.

"Yes." I nodded, looking down onto the ground. "He... I have to save the people of Skopje. Even if I have to fight another Campione... No, because he is a Campione, I can't let him do something like this anymore!" I swept my hand across the ruined land filled with storms and the undead to emphasize my point.

Even though Campiones were the champion of mankind.

Even though they were the sole force that could counter Heretic Gods.

How could I, who swore to be a hero let him commit these kind of acts and not fight him when he was the instigator of everything that has happened?

No.

No matter what I had to do, such acts of mass destruction and death was unforgivable.

However, Voban was a Campione, who was above all mortals of this human realm except other Campiones.

As a Campione who desired to become a hero who would save everyone, I had to either convince Voban to never do such inhumane act again, or be forced to kill him.

Such was my right.

Such was my responsibility.

Alice looked at me worriedly, but I could see a faint visage of Saber looking at me with eyes of approval.

Alice was worried regardless.

"Shirou! If you fight him, he will kill you! Even though you have your... ability, Sasha Voban has acquired countless years of experience through fighting various Heretic Gods and Campiones! You even experienced the consequence of fighting him in the mountain! Although you may stop him today, you will probably die in the process!"

I looked back at Alice.

Then I smiled.

My smile made her flinch, as if my smile had shown her an aspect about me that she had suspected all along.

My unworried smile, that neither showed bravery nor sadness must have finalized her suspicion.

Alice was a smart girl, after all. She was a genius, just like Rin. The three months that we had spent together must have shown her that I was not a normal human.

That I was distorted.

To such a degree that my mindset was inhuman and tended to be unconcerned for myself at the prospect of saving.

Thus, my smile was a message enough for her to not pursue an argument for my uninvolvement from the fight.

Alice gently bit her lower lip, and looked at me with a conflicted expression, but only sighed and nodded. "Looks like any advice from me to be careful is pointless. Regardless, I'll be following right behind you-" I opened my mouth to tell her that it would be dangerous and that she should not fight beside me, but she pressed a finger on my lip, and gave me The Look, effectively silencing me with her aura. "To give you support. And don't tell me you won't need it because you will. You have to focus all your concentration on fighting Voban and Herakles, so you won't have any time to take care of Voban's minions taking potshots at you."

I looked at her warily, before asking. "But if you are injured, I may not be able to save you. Is that alright?"

In response, Alice just wagged her finger at me with a coy smile. "I still have most of my magical power, and Mrs. Pendragon has assured me that she will protect me if all else fails."

I was skeptical of her reasoning. Saber had her Excalibur used against Heracles, and it only managed to push him back.

With Saber's trump card useless against the giant, what was she planning?

Before she could ask any specifics, the bull landed on the edge of the mountain... If the mountain could be called a mountain anymore. It looked more like a giant rubble of rocks and trees, and did not hold the previous visage of a proper mountain as there were various fissures caused by Herakle's shockwaves and Voban's incessant use of storms to tear the landscape apart.

All of us jumped off the bull, and it dissolved into particles of prana.

I did not need the bull for now. Brute force probably could not kill the giant humanoid wolf, Voban, just by looking at how he had used his pelt to black against the supersonic slashes that had sliced up the mountain like hot knife to a butter.

I turned toward Alice and asked with silent will. "Are you ready?"

Alice looked at me, and she gave me a soft smile, a smile that fully exhibited her regal and magnificent qualities as a royalty, and spoke. "Let us go, Shirou."

Together, we turned and ran. Never looking back, and facing only forward.

AN: Thanks Mars for the delightful betaing of my work. I know I jumped on you with this chapter after 8 months of no contact.

I tried.

I really tried.

But you know, high school to college, my father with leukemia, real life stuff that caught up to me.

So I couldn't write.

I didn't have the MUSE.

So I wrote The One Who Protects, which was posted just to see what kind of reaction one would get by posting a prologue where the main character ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING instead of just becoming an OP ass bitch.

Now, Ichigo will become an OP, but he upgraded from ass bitch status with his intervention at the beginning to a badass bastard status.

I'm working on that story now. I got a pretty good storyboard planned out.

Constructive criticisms are welcome. Flames are ignored.

Reviews: even one sentence reviews will make e giddy with happiness. Not that it's gonna make me write faster, but please be nice.

p.s. Who can tell me how to get Herakle's black bar of roaring insanity on Fanfiction? I tried to write them by highlighting the words black, but it didn't work.